Maddie Elliott and the girls relay team storm to Glasgow gold

The Aussie Dolphins added six medals to their growing tally on day four of the 2015 IPC World Championships in Glasgow overnight, with Maddison Elliott and the prestigious women’s 4x100m 34-point relay team both claiming gold.

After four days the Australians have a total of 18 medals; six gold, five silver and seven bronze.

The relay team of Ashleigh McConnell, Lakeisha Patterson, Maddison Elliott and Ellie Cole dug deep to come from behind to take the win in 4:24.17 ahead of the USA (4:24.45) with Great Britain taking the bronze in 4:29.83 and Canada (4:35.05) in fourth.

Earlier in the night Elliott shaved 0.61 seconds off her previous world record set at the 2014 Commonwealth Games to win individual gold in the women’s 100m freestyle S8.

In the relay it was McConnell who was first off the blocks sitting in third place at the 50m mark before handing over to Patterson at the 100m point.

She then held the Dolphins in a strong medal position for Elliott who took on Great Britain to touch the 300m mark in second place.

Paralympic golden girl, Cole then dived in and produced a barnstorming final leg to snatch the gold for Australia.

Cole, who hasn’t swum a relay since the London Paralympics said she was happy to see Australia continuing the success of the event.

“I haven’t swum a relay since the London Paralympics where we really cemented ourselves as top medal contenders in this event, so it’s great to see that as a country we’re continuing that and hopefully the momentum will flow through into the Rio Paralympics next year,” said Cole.

Elliott said that coming off the back of a previous event that night really stung but was over the moon with the final result.

“We’ve all had other events tonight but for me the last 50m really stung,” Elliott said.

“I was just thinking to myself swim fast for the team and do them proud so when I handover the final leg to Ellie we’re in a good spot.

“I was really happy to finish my part of the race and see we were in second place for the final leg.

Elliott’s individual gold came from the same lane at the same pool as she won gold 12 months ago at the Commonwealth Games.

She added world championship gold in a world record time of 1:04.71, ahead of long-term rival Jessica Long (1:06.95) from the USA with fellow Aussie Lakeisha Patterson (1:08.05) taking the bronze.

Meanwhile Matt Levy claimed his second silver medal for the meet in the men’s 200m individual medley SM7 clocking 2:38.12, before young-gun Tiffany Thomas-Kane continued her triumphant meet winning a bronze medal in the women’s 50m freestyle S6.

It was stroke-for-stroke until the final touch with Thomas-Kane breaking an Oceania record in 34.73 behind the Ukrainian pair Yelyzaveta Mereshko who broke the world record in 34.14 and Viktoriia Savtsova in 34.20.

In the women’s 50m freestyle S9 final, Coleglided to the finish line to win bronze in 29.61 behind Sarai Gascon (29.41) from Spain and Michelle Konkoly (29.45) from team USA.

McConnellwasn’t far behind in a close fourth touching the wall for the first time under 30-seconds in 29.84.

In other events, Grant Patterson continued his impressive week breaking the Oceania record in the men’s 50m freestyle S3 finishing the sprint in 52.60.